CF: Connecting ColdFusion to Microsoft Azure SQL

I am impressed by what Microsoft has been able to create with the Azure platform. The more I play with it the more I like it. What impresses me most is how simple it is to get going (I am comparing with Amazon). The big caveat here is that you use MS technologies. If so, Azure should be on the short list for evaluation.
However, and, here I go again reversing myself, if you want to connect a ColdFusion front end to a Microsoft Azure SQL back end, things are a little more quirky. Please don't ask why you would do such a thing, just stay with me in that it is highly cool ;o)

First, you should evaluate whether your application will give to this kind of setup. On the ColdFusion side you should have good control on the amount of data you exchange with the database(pagination and other techniques); you also should have some tolerance for higher latency; there is delay in the round trip to get data from Microsoft etc.

Of course the usual evaluation of whether you are ok with hosting data in the cloud should take place. But on the other hand, taking this for a spin is easy enough.

In my setup I am hosting the CF server on my laptop and MS is supplying the database.

1) Learn about Azure: Learn about Azure things and then Create Account

2) Create your first database instance online using your browser

3) Get your tools. You do not need to download the Visual Studio or other SDKs to work with SQL Azure, but you will need to use the SQL Server 2008 R2 Management tools. Currently only available as CTP edition.

4) Optional: Migrate some data. For me, using the script wizard in the Management Studio worked the best. You can switch it to produce SQL Azure specific scripts, but you still have to tweak them. Your primary keys have to be clustered when creating tables.
e.g.:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TestTable](
[Test_ID] [int] NOT NULL,
[TestName] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[TimeZoneOffsetHours] [smallint] NULL,
[TimeZoneOffsetMins] [smallint] NULL,
CONSTRAINT [PK_TestTable] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (
[Test_ID] ASC
)WITH (STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF)



5) Once you have some data we start with the ColdFusion parts. I have not been able to use the Adobe supplied drivers. I had to download the Microsoft JDBC 2.0 drivers. When you extract the jdbc drivers there are two .jar files. For CF you will need to use [sqljdbc4.jar]. Copy this driver into [cfroot]\lib folder.

6) Restart ColdFusion

7) Configuring your Data Source in the ColdFusion administrator. Here it gets a little complicated. You need to create a data source of type "other". Also, you cannot use the connect strings that are supplied by MS directly, though pieces are useful. The current stance is that Microsoft does not support JDBC connection but if you can work it they are fine with it. To make it simple I am attaching an image: (please note the way in which we have to set the User name)(replace myID with the database User ID and myServer with your server name from Azure):



8) Configure your connection settings. The Azure platform will drop your connection frequently. So maintaining connection is not really an option. This is what worked best for me to make it appear as if we had no connection issues.



Ok, hopefully this all worked out for you and you can take this for a spin.

Cheers,
Bilal